Topeka ? Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kris Kobach said Monday he would probably run in 2010 for Secretary of State, the state’s chief election official.

Kobach, a law professor at University of Missouri-Kansas City, said he was concerned about the potential for voter fraud and that if he were elected secretary of state, he would push for legislation that would require Kansans show identification to vote.

“That would be something that I would be constantly urging the Legislature to put in place,” he said.

He said Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ veto of a bill earlier this year that would have required Kansas voters to show photo identification was “one of her biggest mistakes.” In vetoing the bill, Sebelius, a Democrat, said there were no instances of voter fraud in Kansas, making the measure unnecessary and adding a burden to some citizens in exercising their right to vote.

The current secretary of state, Ron Thornburgh, also a Republican, is in his fourth term, and has said he intends to run for the GOP nomination for governor in 2010.

In announcing his intentions, Kobach said he will not seek re-election as chairman of the state Republican Party. He also said he hasn’t ruled out a race for attorney general.

Kobach, elected party chairman in 2007, said he accomplished his goals for the GOP in the recent election in which Republican Lynn Jenkins defeated U.S. Rep. Nancy Boyda, D-Topeka, and Kansas’ other congressional Republicans won by landslides.

“The Kansas Republican Party is back,” he said.

Kobach ran for the 3rd Congressional District seat in 2004 but was defeated by U.S. Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Lenexa.

Kobach is a former White House fellow and had advised former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft on immigration issues.

Kobach’s successor as party chairman will be elected by the 200-member Republican State Committee on Jan. 30. Christian Morgan, state GOP executive director, said one person who has decided to run is Amanda Adkins, a GOP activist from Overland Park who managed U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback’s 2004 re-election campaign.

In addition to service as chairman, Kobach represented parents and students in an unsuccessful lawsuit challenging a 2004 Kansas law giving the children of some illegal immigrants the lower in-state tuition rates.

— Statehouse reporter Scott Rothschild can be reached at (785) 354-4222 or (785) 423-0668.